1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hair iron having buffer members, particularly to a hair iron having buffer members, which are located in between two opposing heating plates to help hair between the heating plates to be straightened smoothly and prevent thermal deformation of hair.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hair iron is an apparatus used to straighten or roll hair at home or beauty salons. FIG. 1 is a drawing showing the conventional hair iron. It is manufactured by inserting heating wires 13b into two opposing heating plates 12b. When the heating plates 12b are heated by the heating wires 13b, users can straighten or roll their hair by applying pressure from outside of the external case 11a. Such a conventional hair iron is driven by a power supply. Descriptions on the power supply, including electric wires and the temperature controller 70, will be omitted here.
A first pressing member 1 and a second pressing member 2 are joined by a hinge 5. To the first pressing member 1 is fixed a spacing stick 60. The spacing stick 60 has a horizontally expanded part 61 at the end. The second pressing member 2 has a spacing member 62, which allows the spacing stick 60 to move up and down. Thus, the spacing between the first pressing member 1 and the second pressing member 2 can be adjusted by pressing with fingers. At the bottom of the spacing member 62 is mounted a spring 63.
In the conventional hair iron, the heating plates 12b touch with each other, so that it does not fix hair smoothly. Also, hair may be damaged because of the heated heating plates. Therefore, buffer members are required to prevent hair from being damaged and deformed and to remove moisture from hair effectively.
Another conventional hair iron is illustrated in Japanese patent publication No. 2001-104036 and shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B. Referring to FIGS. 2A and 2B, the hair iron has two grip blocks 300 and 300′ in similar to that shown in FIG. 1. Four rollers 400 to 403 and two heating plates 310 and 310′ are included in the grip blocks 300 and 300′. Since the two grip blocks 300 and 300′ is gripped by hand, they should be made of a heat-resistant material. Two pairs of the rollers 400 to 403 are rotated in grooves when hair is arranged or straighten. Further, the rollers 400 to 403 are not disposed on the heating plates 310 and 310′ but deviated from the direct heating region of the heating plates 310 and 310′. The rollers 400 to 403 are made of a material with a high heat conduction coefficient in order to keep the effective heat treatment of the hair. In this case, the relatively high heating temperature of the heating plates 310 and 310′ must be maintained to provide heat for the rollers 400 to 403 and the rolling operation must is guaranteed exactly when straightening hair.
However, it is very difficult to guarantee the exact rolling because the rollers 400 to 403 are just disposed in the grooves without any auxiliary supporting members. Furthermore, since the rolling condition in the pair of the rollers 400 and 401, which hair enters, is different from another rolling condition in the pair of the rollers 402 and 403, the hair treatment is not smooth during styling. Moreover, since the grip blocks 300 and 300′ are made of a heat-resistant material, there are two temperature zones. The first temperature zone is positioned at a center zone between the rollers and the second temperature zone is positioned at the rollers 400 to 403 and the outside thereof. Since a part of hair is between the rollers 400 to 403 in a first temperature zone and another part of hair is between the heating plates 310 and 310′ in a second temperature zone during styling, the straightening or arranging is not smooth to cause damage to hair.